The Spoken Word

Currents - Tidbits to use and amuse

-- NASA chief James Fletcher, urging the establishment of a new science to study all aspects of global growth and change

BEHIND DOOR NO. 3?

C`mon down and read a brand new magazine called TV Game Shows.

Well, where else will you find ``An Intimate Look at Vanna White.`` Or ``The Real Pat Sajak Story.`` Or ``Couples who met on game shows.``

The magazine has been launched by Serafini Publications, New York. It has a single copy price of $1.95.

Readership should be fairly easy to build as recent network research indicates there are 16 million unduplicated viewers for game shows each day and 70 million every week. In fact, with numbers like that, it`s a puzzle why no one thought of this sooner!

Included in the magazine are tips on how to get on a game show and how to beat big taxes after winning. Not to mention a game show quiz, a game show calendar of events and your own game show horoscope.

Stay tuned to your local newsstand.

CONSUMING PASSION

The new, free summer 1986 Consumer Information Catalog is loaded with the titles of more than 200 government booklets on all kinds of consumer topics.

The Consumer Information Center of the U.S. General Services Administration publishes the catalog quarterly. Topics covered by the listed publications range from helping your child become a better student to helping you straighten out consumer problems, from advice on choosing an investment counselor to precautions you can take to make sure you invest wisely, from making sure your picnic food is safe to eat to dietary suggestions that will help you lower the risk of cancer or heart disease. Many of the booklets listed are free.

Last year, the FBI received more than 10 million sets of fingerprints for processing and a million of them were rejected as smudgy messes. The process of inking fingers and taking an impression is 106 years old. It`s no wonder then, considering the advances in high technology, that a new system for obtaining fingerprints soon may be available. A recently patented device works like a camera, making photographs of the fingers when they`re placed in slots on the machine. The photographs are more clear and legible than inking, though also more expensive.

The FBI isn`t the only one interested in fingerprints. Security firms are using images of fingerprints -- in the form of digits on microchips -- as passwords for unlocking doors or checking identifications.

THIS WEEK IS

Be Nice to New Jersey Week

Special Recreation Week

North American Indian Days

National Nude Days

National Therapeutic Recreation Week

KEYS TO EXEC SUCCESS

Take that A,S,D,F! Bombs away, Semi-colon, L,K,J!

Here we are in an age of split-second satellite comunications and high-tech computer capabilities. So what is the hottest modern self-improvement computer program for high-powered executives?

Typing.

Seems that modern execs and managers are jealous of their secretaries` nimble fingers on the old typewriter keys.

So more of them are sharpening their typing skills by playing computer games such as Master-Type (Scarborough Systems, $39.95), an arcade-style game that involves, well, hitting the right keys to fend off attackers.